BLACK LIVES MATTER
Illustration by Sacrée Frangine
I write this out of frustration and utter confusion.
It blows my mind that the year is 2020, slavery has been abolished for 150 years yet racism is still very much alive within the hearts of many people. Black people are being chased down by vehicles and shot, hanged from trees and pinned to the concrete until their breath escapes them forever.
2020 has been an eye-opening year. I have learned a lot about the people within my friend and family group. Things that will stick with me for the rest of my life and have shifted my perspective on some. 2020 may be a year of lost friendships.
All lives matter, absolutely, but that is not the point and you know it. You know exactly what you are saying when you say All Lives Matter or White Lives Matter. It cuts me to the core to see these statements touted over and over again by people I consider friends, family and the community I grew up in.
White privilege is a real thing. Deny it all you want, but you are wrong. The circumstances and opportunities you and I as white people have encountered are not the same circumstances and opportunities black and brown people encounter. Could you imagine going out for a jog and having the police called on you because you “look suspicious”? Isn’t it fucked that white men can stand in front of the Michigan State Capitol armed to the teeth without any problem but a 12-year old black child is shot and killed for playing with an airsoft gun? You don’t think it’s fucked when a black business owner calls the police because their store is being looted, only to have the police officers arrest the owner because they assumed it was they who were looting?
When I was younger, mostly around the time of high school, I had a poor view of the Hispanic community in our area. I was naïve, had zero world experience and I had been living in a bubble surrounded by people speaking the same, with nobody to challenge our views. Some people live in these little pockets their entire life, never exposing themselves to anything besides what they have always known. I am speaking of the community as a whole. The entire county. It was (and obviously still is) littered with subtle and not-so-subtle racism. It wasn’t until I moved away to college that I was exposed to cultures and people outside of my own.
During college I befriended people of all different colors. As a person, besides the color of their skin, do you know how they were different than me? THEY FUCKING WEREN’T. They were young, excited to be in college, listened to music, liked to hang out with friends on the weekends, etc. I saw them for who they were, not the color of their skin. I feel I really grew as a person during college. My views on the world and the people around me really expanded.
After college I moved to Minneapolis, which was by far the largest and most diverse city I had ever lived in. Similar to college, I quickly became friends with people of different colors at the gym, at work, I frequented their restaurants, shopped at their stores and played Dungeons and Dragons with them. These people all shared the same interests as me, I was not better than them in any way. Again, as a person THEY ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN ME.
I now live in the Denver Metro area and same story: I have met and become friends with multiple people of different races, embraced their culture, eaten their food, explored their religions and it’s fucking great! Denver is MUCH more diverse than Minneapolis (still very white though) and a lot of my co-workers are not white. Do you know what they are though? Smarter than me, better at their job than I am, extremely creative, great leaders and more. I am not above these people in any way, especially by the color of my skin.
To the Hispanic community that I used to unfairly judge: I am sorry. I had no outlook into anyone’s life besides my own. I have learned since then. I have become a better person since then. I continue to make mistakes, but I learn from my mistakes. I am eager to listen, learn and continue to grow.
To anyone that will take offense to this, instead of frantically typing out an irate response, let’s have a conversation. Let’s use our words and form our own opinions. Instead of re-sharing a meme filled with hate you found on Facebook, let’s have a discussion.
I would like to end with one word. One word, that if adopted by all, would change the world: COMPASSION